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Dan Morgan was inducted into the University of Minnesota “M Club” Hall of Fame for athletic achievement on September 20, 2012. It had been over 35 years since his last baseball game for the Golden Gophers, yet he “is remembered as one of the Gophers‘ all-time great pitchers.”1 He was the only right-handed pitcher in […]

In a 2004 column written for ESPN previewing the American League Championship Series between the New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox, Bill Simmons broke down the bullpen matchup as follows: “In extra-inning games, I’d take (Derek) Lowe and Leskanic over any of the … Yankee guys. And you know there’s going to be […]

As a young and hopeful Art Kusnyer (pronounced KUSH-ner) started his professional baseball career in 1966, he made a contingency plan: “If I didn’t make it in baseball, I wanted to be a highway patrolman,” he told the author.1 He never got to work for the highway patrol. Instead, the solidly built 6-foot-2, 197-pound Kusnyer, […]

One of the shortest men ever to play major-league baseball, one of the first to wear a batting helmet after being nearly killed in a game, and once rumored to be the heir apparent to the great Honus Wagner, William Joseph Barbeau enjoyed a full baseball career. Barbeau bounced around the minor leagues, mostly the […]

On the Chicago Cubs’ Opening Day in 1930, 7-year-old Bobby Wolf and future President Ronald Reagan had something in common. Neither had ever seen a major-league baseball game. That afternoon young Bobby listened to Pat Flanagan on Chicago radio station WBBM describing the action as the Cubs edged the Cardinals in St. Louis, 9-8. Hack […]

Countless Illinois high-school basketball players knew Bob Freels as “Mr. Steps,” the hawkeyed referee who made sure no traveling penalty went uncalled.1 Freels apparently became so fond of the nickname that he carries it for eternity: It’s etched into his gravestone in his hometown of Mascoutah, Illinois, in the southern part of the state, about […]

Bob Bruce was a promising prospect with the Detroit Tigers in the 1950s, but his progress was delayed because he missed most of 1957 and 1958 while serving in the Army. The 6-foot-3 righty pitched in just 50 games for the Tigers as a swingman from 1959 through 1961. He got a chance to become […]

Situated between UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh and the much larger Allegheny Cemetery is a patch of land that feels out of sync with the rest of modernity. With large stone walls at its entrance and brick roads, St. Mary Catholic Cemetery harks back to the late 19th or early 20th century. Along one of […]

When Willie Montanez walked to the plate from the on-deck circle he would flip his bat end over end like a baton. When he swung and missed he had a high, circular finish reminiscent of a matador twirling his sword at a charging bull. At first base, he would sometimes tap runners on the rear […]

For 11 years Tim Flannery was an infielder for the San Diego Padres. During his childhood, he sang and played guitar with other family members. He took his guitar with him on the road while playing for the Padres and after retiring from his playing days, decided to take his musical career seriously. While coaching […]

Despite missing two of his prime seasons while serving his country during World War II, Marlin Carter played professional baseball for nearly a quarter-century in major and minor Negro Leagues. Nicknamed “Pee Wee,” the 5-foot-7, 160-pounder threw right-handed and batted lefty. Primarily a third baseman, he also saw action at second base and shortstop, and […]

“Fred Wenz Provides Red Sox Mysticism” — how can the reader resist responding to a newspaper headline like that? The article in a 1969 issue of Boston Herald Traveler discussed “the Wenz enigma — a situation which has found Fireball Fred blinding minor league hitters and then getting bombed in the majors.”1 It wasn’t the […]

For the first of its eventual 110 wins, the 1927 Yankees team braved overflowing crowds, raised its 1926 pennant, and saw the Bambino whiff twice before being removed for a pinch-hitter in an 8-3 Opening Day victory against the favored Philadelphia Athletics. “The weather was lovely, the peanuts and hot dogs were unusually tasty,” wrote […]

It was an unlikely time for the best game in Bill Monbouquette’s career. An emerging star and fan favorite, the Boston Red Sox’ 25-year-old right-handed local boy from Medford, Massachusetts, entered the 1962 campaign with a 38-36 career slate but hit a rough patch in July after earning his second All-Star berth. “I’ve been lousy […]

Some days home-run power makes the difference in a baseball game. Other days speed wins games. Every so often, a team lucks into both at once, and the outcome is (usually) a dominant win. The Rochester Red Wings of the Triple-A International League benefited from bursts of both power and speed on July 1, 1982. […]

In the world of digital photography, a pixel is the smallest element of a picture represented on the screen. A high-resolution 8-by-10-inch photograph comprised of 7.2 million pixels (2,400 by 3,000 pixels).1 Up close, a single pixel — or even one square inch of pixels — of the most captivating image is unrecognizable and unremarkable. […]

Baseball is a game of inches, but it is also a game of numbers. On April 8, 1974, Number 44 hit Number 715. Every baseball fan in America knew what that meant: Hank Aaron had just surpassed Babe Ruth to claim the career home-run record. The Atlanta Constitution showcased Aaron’s feat on its front page, […]

A Sunday afternoon doubleheader at Comiskey Park pitted the hometown Chicago White Sox against the visiting Boston Red Sox. A crowd of 37,281 was on hand to watch the White Sox attempt a four-game sweep of last-place Boston. Just one week earlier (June 19), “the White Sox were encased in gloom”1 after a four-game losing […]

“This is a cursed team,” starting shortstop Gary DiSarcina said of the 1992 California Angels. His fatalism, in retrospect, is easy to understand. The team’s travails included the death from cancer of coach Deron Johnson, a life-threatening spring-training injury to pitcher Matt Keough,1 a May accident involving a team bus that seriously injured manager Buck […]

For the Boston Red Sox team, it was a nice way to even up a new season. For Carroll Hardy, it was a great way to start a new season. By virtue of being shut out, 4-0, at Fenway Park on Opening Day 1962, the Red Sox were tied for last place in the American […]

John Caruso’s short-lived professional career was not packed with highlights, but he knew how to pick his spots. The third baseman played a single season in the Pittsburgh Pirates’ organization in 1971, as a member of the Niagara Falls (New York) Pirates of the short-season Class A New York-Penn League. In 54 games and 142 […]

Home runs came frequently in Mike Piazza’s career, resulting in 399 homers as a catcher, a major-league record, and 427 homers overall. Triples were much rarer; in 16 big-league seasons, the lumbering Piazza had three separate droughts of at least 487 games without a three-base hit and wound up with a total of eight triples. […]

The New York Mets were at the end of a brief but miserable road trip. They had lost four of the previous six games and were ready to return home to Shea Stadium. Their time on the road was marred by Vince Coleman’s misdeed on July 24 when he threw a powerful M-100 firecracker out […]

It was the “most astonishing piece of pitching,” gushed sportswriter John Drebinger about New York Giant Cliff Melton’s 13-strikeout performance in his major-league debut.1 The New York Daily News commented that Melton’s “fireball had plenty of zip, but the Giants bats had no zing,” as they lost a heartbreaker in the final frame.2 The reigning […]